August Month Articles
Last Monday, some 52 innocent people
were blown to death in Mumbai. They were ordinary businessmen, clerks,
tourists, taxi drivers and, maybe, plain loiterers. They were, in fact,
so ordinary that we haven't even bothered with their names. .....
The situation in the Chittagong
Hill Tracts (CHT) in Bangladesh, adjacent to South Tripura district, has
become volatile again following army atrocities on the indigenous people
of the region. .....
Iraqi police have arrested two
men believed to be Pakistanis -- with possible connections to al Qaeda
-- who they suspect are tied to Friday's deadly car bombing at one of the
Shiite Muslims' most revered mosques, the governor of Najaf said Saturday.
.....
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
general secretary Mohan Bhagwat claimed that that terrorism would end only
the people of India took steps to ensure their security rather than depending
on the government and the administration. .....
No one in family knew this student's
double-life, Geelani only one at his funeral Srinagar, August 29: On the
surface, this could be a typical Srinagar story: the body of a militant
being returned home. But this one isn't. .....
In a startling development, the
Ahmedabad city crime branch arrested five people, claimed to be conspirators
and executors of the terror attack on the Akshardham temple on September
24 last year which killed persons. .....
Amid the ruins, the reaffirmation
of faith. From the ravages of Monday's twin blasts that shook and bled
Mumbai has emerged a story of touching honesty that restores one's faith
in humanity. .....
Rights groups and police are facing
off on the killing of 13 Naxalites by the Nagrik Suraksha Samiti (NSS)
in Dumaria block of Jamshedpur district. .....
The twin bombings in India’s business
capital of Mumbai on Monday basically symbolised an organised militant
response from Indian Muslim groups which now seem determined to battle
the rise of Hindu fundamentalism in India and avenge the 1993 and 2002
massacres of Muslims in Mumbai and Gujarat, respectively, according to
security affairs experts in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. .....
Something is happening among the
people of Pakistan that is worth India's attention. Their mood towards
India is apparently changing. A PTI report from Islamabad dated June 24
said that members of the visiting Indian Parliamentary delegation seemed
surprised to notice a change in public mood against jehad and the craving
of the people for friendship and good relations with India. .....
The Additional District Sessions
Court (Fast Track) Judge, K. K. Chandradas, today served a death sentence
on all the five convicted in the Jayakrishnan murder case under Section
302 of the Indian Penal Code. .....
Are you a health freak who believes
that jogging or walking is the best exercise? Think again. Brisk walking
does help, but doing pranayam (breathing exercises as prescribed in ancient
Indian texts) for 30 minutes every day is far more beneficial for your
heart and lungs. .....
The five CPI (M) workers accused
of killing KT Jayakrishnan, state vice president of BJP Yuva Morcha, have
been awarded death sentence by Thalassery Session Judge today. Pradeepan
(32), Sundaran (40), Shaji (30), Dinesh Babu (29), and KK Anil Kumar (32)
are the five CPI (M) workers who were awarded the death sentence by the
court. .....
For the first time since the Nanavati-Shah
Inquiry Commission started probing the Godhra incident and the subsequent
state-wide communal riots, a witness from Dariyapur area, who deposed before
the Commission on Monday, said that he had videographed a Muslim man carrying
an AK-47 rifle and using it to scare Hindu residents of the area. .....
Police raided a house in northern
Bangladesh and arrested nine alleged members of an outlawed Islamic militant
group that has vowed to establish Taliban-style rule in secular Bangladesh,
officials said today. .....
Her father stabbed her a dozen
times in the chest. Father waited to make sure daughter was soundly dead,
then he called police. Father was charged with misdemeanor. No prison time.
Judges clapped their hands for father because he upheld the honor of his
home. .....
Three minor Dalit girls, all of
them migrants from Orissa working in a brick kiln in Kowkoor in Alwal,
were sexually assaulted by their employers over a period of one and a half
years. .....
A diabolically timed terrorist
attack eclipsed the ongoing Inter- State Council meeting here on Thursday
as fidayeen militants struck shortly after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
delivered his speech at the inaugural session of the two-day meeting. The
militants first targeted the Central Telegraph Office (CTO) in the high
security Civil Lines area on Wednesday evening, later rushing into the
adjacent Greenway Hotel. .....
Despite its moral posturing vis-a-vis
cross-border terrorism, Pakistan harbours the dream of carving out at least
three states for Muslims in India - an indication to this effect is available
from information revealed by terrorists apprehended in the Jammu and Kashmir
region, according to a top officer of the Border Security Force (BSF).
.....
Aissatou Bah, 17, used to dress
in the latest fashions and frequent trendy nightclubs in the capital Conakry
just like any other girl of her age. .....
The man who helped mix the deadly
one-tonne Bali nightclub bomb Sawad, alias Sardjiyo, yesterday said he
wanted to thank the Australian people who had supported his cause during
recent Australian anti-Gulf War protests. .....
Even for a region pockmarked by
blasts and shootings, the scale of the bombing of Bombay raises concerns
about the stability of south Asia. The city port has been rocked by a series
of explosions in the last few months, but Monday's attacks, which claimed
more than 50 lives, were the biggest for nearly a decade. .....
The 'discovery' of an ancient 'structure'
underneath the demolished Babri masjid by the Archaeological Survey of
India has far more political overtones than historical or legal ones. .....
The circus that recently left the
town of Washington, DC, included noted US and India baiters who had come
to complain to people in the United States that the principle of secularism
is endangered in India. .....
Accusing Bangladesh of persecuting
the minorities, a prominent Human Rights activist has said attacks on non-Muslims
have increased since October 2001, when the Bangladesh National Party came
to power in a coalition with hardline Islamic parties. .....
Iran has admitted for the first
time that it received substantial foreign help in building a secret nuclear
facility south of Tehran that is now beginning to enrich uranium, turning
it into a key ingredient in the manufacture of nuclear weapons, according
to U.N. documents and diplomatic sources. .....
There is a tendency, distressingly
familiar among the global fraternity of liberals, to shy away from facing
awkward realities. India is no exception to this escapism. In the aftermath
of the two bomb blasts that killed at least 50 people and injured another
160 in the center of Bombay -- India's largest city and the nerve center
of its entrepreneurial culture -- there are some self-serving explanations
doing the rounds. .....
Despite claims that Indonesian
forces have cracked down on Radical Islamists in the Indonesian province
of West Papua, the separatist movement there says Laskar Jihad is still
active and being supported by local Indonesian military. .....
As US President George W Bush prepares
for possible meetings with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President
Pervez Musharraf during the UN session next month, US relations with Pakistan
are under strain because of Musharraf's failure to end cross-border terrorism
against India, according to analyst John E Carbaugh. .....
Deputy prime minister LK Advani
on Tuesday expressed confidence that the culprits responsible for the blasts
will soon be nabbed. .....
Even for a region pockmarked by
blasts and shootings, the scale of the bombing of Bombay raises concerns
about the stability of south Asia. The city port has been rocked by a series
of explosions in the last few months, but Monday's attacks, which claimed
more than 50 lives, were the biggest for nearly a decade. .....
Intelligence reports from Kolkata
say that an ISI agent based in Dhaka is behind Monday's twin blasts in
Mumbai that killed 50 people. .....
Three members of a suburban Virginia
group that federal prosecutors say was training to wage Islamic war abroad,
notably in India, have pleaded guilty to weapons charges, and administration
officials said today that they planned to expand their investigation into
the group. .....
City Police Commissioner Ranjeet
Singh Sharma said on Monday evening that the driver of the taxi, parked
at the Gateway of India has been detained for interrogation immediately
after the two blasts in the megalopolis. .....
This week, Rashid Khalidi starts
his new job as the first Edward Said Chair of Middle East Studies at Columbia
University, as well as director of the school's Middle East Institute.
His arrival augments the school's already acute problems of extremism and
intolerance on the Middle East. .....
Swami Vivekananda Rock Memorial
set amidst the ocean off Kanyakumari is under threat from rapid erosion
of the rocks upon which the monument is built. .....
Excavation at the disputed site
of Rama Janmabhumi - Babri Masjid was carried out by the Archaeological
Survey of India from 12 March 2003 to 7 August 2003. During this period,
as per the directions of the Hon'ble High Court, Lucnow. 82 tenches were
excavated to verify the anomalics mentioned in the report of the Ground
Penetrating Radar Survey which was conducted at the site prior to taking
up the excavations. .....
According to a quick assessment
by the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency,
the Mumbai bomb blasts carry the signature of Pakistan's Inter-Services
Intelligence. .....
This is with reference to Nilanjan
Mukhopadhyay's claim "that beef eating in India was never a matter of identity
for Muslims" (The Pioneer, Aug 27, 2003). This is simply not true.
For the great majority of Indian Muslims, there is a fatwa that "sacrificing
cows is definitely in accordance with the requirements of Shariah" and
that "those who advocate to the contrary to please the polytheists, the
fatwa declares, are out to undermine Islam. .....
A look at two allied Islamic militant
groups mentioned by Indian officials in connection with Monday's
bombings in Bombay. .....
The two attacks in Bombay that
killed 50 people prompted a message of condolence from John Paul II to
the archbishop of Bombay. .....
CPM State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan
has said that mosques in the State are being turned into centres of communal
extremists of the minority community. .....
Only last week, a global terrorism
index listed India as one of the 10 countries most vulnerable to an attack.
Yesterday the latest -- and most deadly -- in a series of bombings in Bombay
proved that prediction sadly correct. .....
A Christian missionary has been
arrested for allegedly molesting a class one student of a convent school
in Chittoregarh district of Rajasthan, police said on Monday. .....
The emasculation of the police
force has been cited as one of the potent reasons for the failure of intelligence
in anticipating such blasts. .....
The 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai
were a retaliation to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya a few
months earlier. Most people now are curious, and clueless, about why so
many blasts targeting not VVIPs or institutions, but the common man are
going off in Mumbai. .....
The latest bomb blasts in Mumbai
speak of the inability of the Central Government to control law and order
forces to combat terrorism effectively in various parts of the country.
.....
A month after the gruesome terrorist
attack on Vaishno Devi pilgrims in which six persons, including an infant,
were killed, the pilgrimage tourism in the State has shown no sign of waning.
.....
Amid fears that a `bomb culture'
is beginning to take roots in Kerala, the police have been cracking down
on illegal diversion of explosives for criminal activities. In the last
two weeks, crude explosive devices were found abandoned in the State-owned
transport buses at Kochi and Kozhikode. .....
A Muslim party has strongly protested
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's proposed visit here next month,
saying it would stir communal tension. .....
Asserting that the Centre was issuing
directives and suggestions to curb atrocities on Dalits from time to time,
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani asked the Dalit leadership to get rid
of prejudices for the benefit of their community. .....
"Why is the Government banning
popular entertainment channels?" screamed a huge front- page advertisement
put out by the Cable Operators Association of Pakistan. Though it did not
identify the channels, the reference was obviously to the Indian television
channels that beam popular serials and Bollywood films. .....
Two Afghan journalists are facing
a death sentence for publishing articles considered blasphemous by a unit
of this nation's Supreme Court. The recommendation, from the court's fatwa
department, came in response to protests by religious students against
the weekly newspaper Aftab. .....
A U.S. intelligence report claims
a Saudi humanitarian organization that operates in Canada has funded "militant
training camps," shipped weapons to Afghanistan and had ties to Osama bin
Laden. .....
The Students Islamic Movement of
India (SIMI) is an Islamic fundamentalist organization, which advocates
the ‘liberation of India’ by converting it to an Islamic land. The SIMI
was formed at Aligarh on April 25, 1977. Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi, Professor
of Journalism and Public Relations at the Western Illinois University Macomb,
Illinois since 1987, was the founding President of the outfit. .....
In the land of Pakistan hatred
continues to grow. This hatred, inspired and ignited by Islamic extremists,
is directed against all moderates and all faiths. To make matters worse
the institutions inside Pakistan, notably the government, judiciary and
police, are also part of the problem in this land of hate. .....
Apparently, the term “peace process”
denotes a situation when Jews are prevented from defending themselves,
while Arabs are killing them at will. And while a small group of “Palestinian”
storefront puppets diligently maintains an impression that the Arab war
against Israel might end if Israel agreed to meet some suicidal conditions,
Arabs themselves make no secret of their true intentions. .....
The gleaming white of the Sri Venkateswara
Temple rose majestically on top of the hill as we approached it one Sunday
afternoon last spring. The exquisite architecture reflected intricate Indian
design. Tall green trees formed a beautiful backdrop as we drove up to
it. Scores of cars were parked right out to the street and throngs of people
were either leaving or entering the temple. .....
"I am greatly impressed by your
discipline,total absence of untouchability and vigorous simplicity.I am
convinced that any organisation inspired by the high ideal of service and
self sacrifice is bound to grow in strength " .Gandhiji had also visited
a Sangh camp at Wardha,Maharashtra in 1934 and met the founder Dr K B Hedgewar
At that time also,he had blessed the Sangh work. .....
Setting at rest the long drawn
controversy over inheritance of the property belonging to a Hindu married
woman who dies intestate or issueless, the Supreme Court has ruled her
husband or father in law would have no claim over it if she had acquired
such a estate from her mother side. .....
On a recent afternoon, the telephone
rang in Oriana Fallaci's Manhattan townhouse. The tiny, blue-eyed 72-year-old
writer put down her cigarette and picked up the receiver. .....
With chief Minister Narendra Modi
set to return here from Geneva on Saturday night along with the urns containing
the ashes of legendary freedom fighter of Shyamji Krishna Varma and wife
Bhanumati, Gujarat is all set to witness the 2000 Km-long 'Veeranjali yatra'
from Mumbai to Mandavi in Kutch District from Sunday reports PTI. .....
Child marriages are common in India,
but what about a child divorce? A startling instance of child marriage
and divorce has come to light in a West Bengal village, where a girl was
married off in infancy. .....
Swiss authorities Friday gave a
controversial Indian politician the ashes of an independence leader
who died in exile after years of trying to free his country from
British rule. .....
Following a dispute between Naga
Sadhus at Trimbakeshwar, 29 Kms from here, and Shankaracharya of Puri Adhokshajananda,
police have served a notice to the latter asking him not to make "any provocative
statements" to the media for at lease a fortnight, which may create 'unrest'
during the ongoing Kumbh Mela, reports PTI. .....
Preachers from U.S.-based religious
sects are triggering a backlash of Muslim fundamentalism in Iraq, says
the Latin-rite Catholic archbishop of Baghdad. .....
Living as we do in the multicultural
age, it is not fashionable to speak of the soul of a nation. But by examining
a nation's achievements, one can form an idea of the moving spirit behind
its history. .....
Stung by adverse publicity he has
attracted in media both in India and London, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra
Modi on Wednesday asked journalists to act as a 'honey-bee' rather than
a 'fly' while discharging their duty. .....
The communists in Kerala are going
hammer and tongs for constructing a memorial for Marxist legend P Krishna
Pillai. And the CPI(M) has issued a diktat to its cadre to donate gold
and land for the cause. .....
Taking que from Deputy Prime Minister
L K Advani and Defence Minister George Fernandes, Parliamentary Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday attempted to demolish the allegations
levelled by Congress president Sonia Gandhi while moving No-Confidence
Motion against Vajpayee Government. .....
CPM leader Jyoti Basu today said
the politburo did discuss the party's support to Congress president Sonia
Gandhi as prime ministerial candidate, apparently contesting state secretary
Anil Biswas' denial of any such discussion in the apex body's meeting.
.....
When Bali bomber Amrozi was sentenced
to death by firing squad this month, he turned around, smiled broadly and
turned his two thumbs up in the air. .....
His name was Dakel Abbas, and he
was a 21-year-old Iraqi soldier drafted in a village where along with his
wife he lived raising cucumbers, onions, eggplants. A village near As-Samawah,
central Iraq. Rather than a soldier, however, you would have thought him
to be a survivor from a concentration camp. .....
The Kashmir conflict has been in
international limelight since proxy militancy erupted and violence continue
to catches the international attention. Two sides have their own interpretation
in their defence. India calls it cross-border terrorism and Pakistan calls
it Jihad. The Kashmiri's are equally divided over the nature of militancy.
.....
A long due and momentous occasion
in the history of Indian Freedom movement happened on 22nd August 2003.
The Government and people of Independent Bharat will have the opportunity
to pay tribute to a great freedom fighter revolutionary, Pandit Shyamji
Krishnavarma. .....
To avoid the dilemma of whether
this war should take place or not, to overcome the reservations and the
reluctance and the doubts that still lacerate me, I often say to myself:
"How good if the Iraqis would get free of Saddam Hussein by themselves.
.....
On October 22, 2002, Oriana Fallaci
addressed an audience at the American Enterprise Institute. Following are
short excerpts from her talk. Ms. Fallaci, a native of Florence, Italy
and a life-long journalist, caused turmoil across Europe with the publication
of her book The Rage and the Pride, calling the West to stand up to the
Islamic world. .....
I find it shameful that in Italy
there should be a procession of individuals dressed as suicide bombers
who spew vile abuse at Israel, hold up photographs of Israeli leaders on
whose foreheads they have drawn the swastika, incite people to hate the
Jews. And who, in order to see Jews once again in the extermination camps,
in the gas chambers, in the ovens of Dachau and Mauthausen and Buchenwald
and Bergen-Belsen et cetera, would sell their own mother to a harem. .....
You happen to preside over the
destiny of the oldest political party by a quirk of fate and an unfortunate
assassination in your family. .....
An evangelist and research scholar
associated with the Meghalaya Christ Church was arrested last night on
charges of trading in heroin, sullying the reputation of the Christian
clergy in this conservative state. .....
For two months, Pushpa's husband
was ill with a high fever. When he finally recovered, she traveled 10 hours
by bus to a temple here in southern India to thank Lord Vishnu in the best
way she knew: by shaving her head. .....
Unfurling the tricolour on Independence
Day proved lethal for a youth of Dangodih village in Jamshedpur district,
who paid with his life for displaying his patriotism. .....
As stated in this column yesterday,
paragraphs number 9, 10 and 11 of Ashraf Jahangir Qazi's speech are half-truths
and lies on India's position on J&K and, instead, paint Pakistan as
the saint sinned against. .....
"Just when I thought everything
ended peacefully, minister Monazir Hassan said, "You are a professor from
America. You have law there. But in Bihar I am the Law. If I want, I can
stop the Rajdhani Express and turn it back." .....
Buddhist organisations in Sri Lanka
have welcomed a Supreme Court decision to prevent proselytising or religious
conversions and to deny legal status to two Christian organisations. .....
In late July, I contacted Ibrahim
Hooper, spokesman and director of communication at the Council of
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). When he returned my call,
he presented his point of view about the Arab-Israeli conflict and
militant Islam. When I reminded him about CAIR's record of
openly supporting Hamas, Hizbullah, and other organizations deemed
by the government to be terrorists, he replied by telling me that
"CAIR does not support these groups publicly." .....
Swami Chinmayanand is the first
religious leader to get a berth in the Union home ministry and he wants
his stint to make a mark. .....
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
on Monday demanded a high-level probe into the Kasmara incident in which
over 250 armed criminals, allegedly owing allegiance to North Bihar Liberation
Army, killed three tribals and injured 10 others on August 11. .....
Alleging that Puri Shankaracharya
Adhokshajanand was 'fake', the Akhil Bharatiya Khaddarshan Akhada Parishad
in its meeting at Tribvamkmeshwar, about 29 km from here has asked the
distric5t administration to remove the Seer from the Kumbh Mela Premises
reports PTI. .....
The reader, pardon, leader of the
opposition, Sonia Gandhi, appears to have had a wonderful day out in Parliament
yesterday, if national dailies are to be believed. And at the end of the
day it seems all the veterans, sniggering veterans at that, were floored
by her, just a novice, and left crawling on the floor of the House. Probably,
some even found themselves at the bottom of the well of the House, we do
not know. .....
DMK President M Karunanidhi on
Tuesday charged the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu with "propagating" Hindutva
with "more vigour" than even the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. .....
In every other instance, the pain
of dispossession, statelessness, and poverty has diminished over time.
Refugees eventually either resettled, returned home or died. Their children
- whether living in South Korea, Vietnam, Pakistan, Israel, Turkey, Germany
or the United States - then shed the refugee status and joined the mainstream.
.....
Expansion attempts by a small Hindu
temple in Queens Village have run into a roadblock, with local homeowners
and others fighting the proposal. .....
What would be the reaction if an
Indian politician woke up one morning, decided enough was enough and charged
a venerable media organisation with promoting a virulent culture of bias
and a campaign to "assassinate the truth?" .....
It is virtually impossible to recount
in words the experience of a lifetime. I wonder what led me there. I tend
to see a spiritual dimension in every thing that touches my life and I
wonder if my anchoring Denise Johnson’s documentary film on the Kumbh Mela,
titled Vision of Faith, was part of a greater universal master plan, a
calling, or was it just the opportunist in me that jumped at the thought
of an organised holy dip that would absolve me of all my past sins? .....
Here Naxalites were unfurling black
flags for the last ten years on Independence Day. However, after ten long
years this nondescript village of Jamshedpur district expressed its faith
in the tricolour and the villagers came out of the shadow of fear. On Friday
the villagers of Longo village gathered at the chaupal of the village and
unfurled the tricolour, thereby reposing their faith in rule of law of
the country. The villagers gained this confidence after killing activists
of the Peoples War Group last week. .....
Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! cried the naughty
shepherd to get attention from the village folk, who ran each time to his
cries and fell victims to his pranks. When the wolf really came, the shepherd
cried again "Wolf! Wolf!" but his cries had lost credibility and no one
came to the rescue. .....
Alleging "unabashed rigging" in
last year's presidential referendum and "patently illegal" constitution
amendments to empower an "unelected" president in Pakistan, two major international
bodies have chastised the Pervez Musharraf regime for "blatant colonisation"
of Pak- occupied Kashmir, "erosion" of democratic governance and "breakdown"
of law and order. .....
A few Muslim leaders on Sunday
greeted Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on his arrival here on a week-long
visit to Britain and Switzerland to attract foreign investment, reports
PTI. .....
Former Pakistani president Zia-ul
Haq had extracted a promise from then US president Ronald Reagan "to look
the other way" when it came to Islamabad's nuclear programme which was
then on the verge of producing a weapon, a book recently published claims.
.....
When Virendra 'Sam' Singh, head
of DuPont's South Asia operations, returned after 35 years in the US, he
did not pick a condominium in one of New Delhi's upscale suburbs to settle
down. He went back to Bichaula, near Anupshahr in UP's Bulandshahr, where
he was born and where nothing much had changed since he left. .....
Soldiers of Allah (SOA), a Los
Angeles-based rap group that now goes under the name Muslim Studio, was
the brainchild of Ali Ardekani. Ardekani got the idea about Muslim rap,
when he was attending an Islamic camp and a "brother from [sic] east coast"
showed him a song he had written. He liked it so much, he wrote and
recorded his own. It became an instant hit, as, according to Ardekani,
"over 100 copies were sold in the two days of its release at a local Islamic
conference." .....
Two weeks ago, I wrote about a
discussion I moderated at the Infosys campus in Bangalore. The subject
was the North-South divide and I was struck by the contempt most South
Indians seemed to have for the politicians of our cow-belt. .....
Terrorists have begun spreading
their tentacles beyond Jammu and Kashmir into the areas bordering neighbouring
Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. The hilly parts of Kathua district with vast
highlands and intractable terrain, known as gateway to the Jammu and Kashmir,
are fast emerging as the new operational areas. .....
There is widespread anger and resentment
here over the police failure to arrest the youths allegedly responsible
for the gang-rape and murder of a 13-year-old schoolgirl on Independence
Day in Aminagarsarai town, near here. .....
As New York reeled under a severe
power cut, the action of an Indian restaurant owner here earned much praise
for traditional Indian hospitality. .....
General Ziaul Haq extracted a promise
from President Ronald Reagan as the war in Afghanistan raged that Pakistan
would work with the CIA against the Soviets in return for massive US aid
and a US promise “to look the other way” when it came to Pakistan’s nuclear
programme, which was then on the verge of producing a weapon. .....
Once one picks up Dr T. H. Chowdary's
book India! Speak up!! To read, it will be difficult to put it down, until
one comes to the end, for the simple reason that it is all engrossing.
For he writes not about food and fashions, dress and departments, but about
values that need to be upheld but seldom are. How many of us - politicians
included - would be dare to speak about deteriorating values and a society
that is steadily going to the dogs? .....
The chairman of the Uganda Muslim
Youth Assembly, Imam Kasozi, has said that former President Idi Amin did
a lot to develop the Muslim community and the country. .....
Bangladesh has recently taken some
steps to protect religious minorities, but discrimination continues, particularly
against Hindus. Communal violence and discrimination have displaced up
to 20,000 Hindus in recent years, with the most serious violations occurring
in 2001. Most Bangladeshi Hindus who seek refuge in India have received
little support or protection. The governments of Bangladesh and India both
must do a better job of dealing with these problems. .....
Foreign contributions and donations
to scores of Indian voluntary organisations, religious groups and charitable
institutions have touched a high of Rs 4,535.23 crore (Rs 45.352 billion),
though the government has taken strict measures to check the source of
overseas funds that many organisations receive. .....
Terrorist organisations in the
Kashmir Valley have an all-new recruitment drive. They are now approaching
senior citizens in the valley to act as fidayeen (suicide bombers). .....
The international working president
of the VHP, Ashok Singhal, on Thursday advocated administration of temples
by autonomous bodies and stressed the importance of people's participation.
.....
During the past few days, separatist
rebels have kidnapped two officers of the state's public works department,
four government contractors and two of their drivers. .....
The Hizbul Mujahideen (HM)'s soliciting
the Kashmiri Pandits to return to the Valley and join the 'independence
struggle' against India should at best be considered a cruel joke, if not
insanity. Being all through very close to the Jamaat-e-Islamis of Kashmir
and Pakistan, and drawing most of its 1,500-odd cadres from the former,
the Muzzafarabad-based organisation has been a strong votary of Kashmir's
Islamisation and its merger with Pakistan. .....
With more than 60,000 Indians killed
by Pakistan-sponsored Islamic terrorists and scars from the stabs on our
back, we flew to Islamabad to talk peace. Bravo. That is the way we are.
The questions raised on the eve of SAFMA delegation's departure were, "What
has changed in Pakistani junta's attitude that has emitted divine rays
of hope? .....
India and Brazil may have more
in common than the story of the historical error made by Portuguese explorer
Pedros Alvares Cabral, who sailed from Lisbon in 1500 for India but landed
in Brazil. .....
Pakistan’s relatively small Christian
community of 2 million, about 3 percent of the population (two-thirds of
them Catholic), has been subjected to systematic repression and death.
Pakistan became an independent nation in the 1940s when India, which had
previously included the region now known as Pakistan, ended its long existence
as a British colony under the leadership of Mohandas Gandhi. .....
Exiled former Pakistan Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif has said that more than 4,000 Pakistani troops and officials
were killed during the 1999 Kargil conflict. .....
Buddhist organisations in Sri Lanka
have welcomed a Supreme Court decision to prevent proselytising or religious
conversions and to deny legal status to two Christian organisations. .....
Foreign policy has always been
incomprehensible to the common man. So think the "experts". Some cables
from India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to his Ambassador to
China in October 1950, explaining how the "poor Tibetans" (who had just
been invaded and thrashed by Communist China) could not grasp the "larger
issues" involved, always come back to my mind. .....
We don’t want to prick the afterglow.
Laloo Prasad Yadav is just back from a track two jamboree in Pakistan,
where he was crowned Stealer of the Show. But may we point out, again,
that in the Republic of Bihar the emperor wears no clothes. The daily abductions
for ransom are old hat, they continue apace. .....
Twenty to twenty-five years ago,
even 10 years ago, few of us had heard of Information Technology. Today,
exports from this industry are worth $10 billion — that is, over Rs 45,000
crore a year. That figure is 20 per cent of our total exports. .....
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS) on Thursday came down heavily on Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf
accusing him of doublespeak on Kashmir issue. .....
The United States has captured
the alleged mastermind of Bali bombings, in which more than 180 people
died, and the recent J W Marriott blast in Jakarta that killed 13. .....
Kerala never runs out of issues
and causes which trigger communal tension. The latest in Kasargod district
is over names — whether villages should be known by their older versions
or by the communally ‘‘re- charged’’ new versions. .....
First it was Bollywood music composer
Nadeem Saifi. Then came the notorious Mumbai don Abu Salem. Now it seems
to be the turn of Mohammad Shahabuddin, a member of Lok Sabha belonging
to Laloo Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, to unfurl the “Islam is in
danger” banner for beating back law enforcement authorities. .....
Yet another Independence Day, yet
another occasion to celebrate our azaadi and yet another national holiday.
August 15 has become all this and much more where hotels organise lavish
spreads, tri-coloured kites cover the sky and political meets are held
where men in khadi talk at length about the sacrifices made by their kith
and kin for achieving freedom. .....
Which Indian sepoy initiated the
revolt of 1857? If you don't know the answer, then it's probably been a
while since you opened a history textbook. .....
A 400-year-old temple was set afire
by some unidentified persons at a place 15 km from here in Jammu and Kashmir's
Doda district in the wee hours of Wednesday, police sources said.
.....
India is not only the world’s largest
democracy but also the most vibrant and effective one. Year after year,
major changes in the ruling patterns have emerged without any violent upsurge
or an army intervention. This shows an extraordinary resilience of our
people who had been subjugated and made to suffer colonial barbarism for
long. .....
The latest recipient of the coveted
Jnanpith award has come under fire from his colleagues in literary circles
for justifying the mass killings in Gujarat last year. .....
Yasmin Akhtar endured violent hatred
from her elderly husband's family for more than a decade before she fled
and secured a divorce. When she submitted a financial claim for £250,000,
Fethaullah Mohammed, her husband's son from his first wife, decided she
should be silenced for good. .....
Why should one community in this
Country enjoy more favours than others? .....
It is often perceived that Islamic
radicalism is the real threat and not Islamic liberalism, yet how true
is this? For history teaches that Islam not only conquered by the sword,
but also via liberals who preached a different Islam in order to convert
the masses. .....
There are no communal riots
in Madhya Pradesh. But four months to the assembly elections, the
Digvijay Singh government is creating a fund for "riot-affected" people.
.....
This morning I received a SOS from
Mrs.Gunasekaran (Kovilancheri). She informed me that the Sivalingam at
Kovilancheri was desecrated by the Christians. Somebody used it as toilet
seat. And had garlanded Siva with torn chappals. She was in tears. And
the entire Hindu community in the village were shocked beyond belief. .....
The area known, as Northern area
of Pakistan is not a Pakistani territory, it is part of the State of Jammu
and Kashmir and its real name is Gilgit and Baltistan. It is unfortunate
that this vast area of Gilgit and Baltistan which is more than 72 thousand
Sq Kilometres with population of around 2 million is administratively cut
off from the other Kashmiri area under the Pakistan control known as Azad
Kashmir. .....
The Briton of Indian origin arrested
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday for allegedly smuggling
a Russian surface-to-air missile into the United States has been identified
by The Times, London, as Hekmat Lakhani. .....
In much the same way as the Russian
invasion of Afghanistan stirred an earlier generation of young Muslims
determined to fight the infidel, the American presence in Iraq is prompting
a rising tide of Muslim militants to slip into the country to fight the
foreign occupier, Iraqi officials and others say. .....
The India-U.S. Defense Policy Group
(DPG) met in Washington last week in what was the fifth meeting of the
DPG and the third meeting since December 2001. New proposals were exchanged
to develop a defense technology relationship to include production, research
and development and if possible, joint development. .....
Bangladesh has recently taken some
steps to protect religious minorities, but discrimination continues, particularly
against Hindus. Communal violence and discrimination have displaced up
to 20,000 Hindus in recent years, with the most serious violations occurring
in 2001. Most Bangladeshi Hindus who seek refuge in India have received
little support or protection. The governments of Bangladesh and India both
must do a better job of dealing with these problems. .....
The Lahore High Court in Pakistan
is facing a legal and a practical dilemma: What to do with the petition
which charge sheets the Pakistan Armed forces and lists details of massive
kickbacks and corruption done by Generals, Air Marshals and Admirals. .....
For a pretty long time the following
four myths have been obscuring our vision of India’s past: Myth 1: ‘There
was an Aryan Invasion of India’ Myth 2: ‘The Harappans were a Dravidian?speaking
People’ Myth 3: ‘The Rigvedic Sarasvati was the Helmand of Afghanistan,’
and Myth 4: ‘The Harappan Culture became Extinct’ .....
There is simply no honest way to
avoid stating the bald truth that the common citizen today feels that his
sense of justice, decency and fairplay have been violated by the very organs
of state entrusted with upholding decorum in public life. .....
Howls of rage went up after the
Joint Terrorism Task Force, guns drawn, arrested Maher Hawash in the parking
lot of an Intel Corp. facility in March and placed him in solitary confinement.
The protests intensified as prosecutors detained him without charges for
more than a month in an Oregon jail while they pored over the evidence.
.....
It was an unusual spectacle at
a RSS gurudakshina programme organized by BJP General Secretary Mukhtar
Abbas Naqvi in Rampur, his old Lok Sabha constituency, on Sunday. .....
As many as 15 al Qaeda leaders
and operatives are currently in Iran, but Tehran is dragging its feet in
responding to requests from Arab governments to repatriate the accused
terrorists for interrogation and trial, a senior Saudi official said yesterday.
.....
At a time when Israel is freeing
terrorists as a confidence building measure to the Palestinian
Authority, Abu Mazen and Arafat had made a special request
of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell that Israel free Ahmad
El- Sukar, because of their special relationship with El
Sukar, which spans more than fifty years. .....
It's been 15 years since Libyan
terrorists downed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, ending
270 lives; four years since Libya finally turned over two suspects
in the bombing; and two years since a Scottish court in the Netherlands
convicted one of them. Fifteen years is a long time, but it's not
long enough for the U.S. to let Libya off lightly. .....
Two recent, but completely unrelated,
court acquittals should be compared for the divergence of ‘secularist’
reactions towards them. In the Best Bakery case, a special fast-track court
acquitted 21 accused — all Hindus — on June 27 in the absence of any credible
evidence after 35 out of the 60 witnesses (including the key-witness, Zahruanissa
Sheikh) had turned hostile. .....
Those who were least required to
give their views on Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani's loud thinking on
the desirability of clubbing Lok Sabha and Assembly elections have been
rather free with their observations while the parties actually concerned
have reacted quite mutedly. .....
There is something about India
(with characteristic humour, our erstwhile colonial rulers used to call
it the "touch of the sun") that presents ordinary, otherwise decent, individuals
with complex psychological conditions. .....
The three suspects who were arrested
yesterday in connection with the Ghatkopar blast were identified as Muzamil
Mohammed Shaikh (27), Dr Mohammed Abdul Mateen (28) and Zahir Ahmed Shaikh
(28), all residents of Aurangabad. .....
"Through small classes, joyous
education, dedicated teachers, 'Vidhyak Samsad' has created an ideal model
before the world," stated Jeane Sperling at Usgaon. .....
The last quit notice issued by
the Core Committee and the All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union (AAPSU)
to the Chakmas and Hajongs of Arunachal Pradesh to leave the State by July
31, 2003, could not have come at a more opportune time for the deposed
Chief Minister Mukut Mithi. It deflected attention over the handling of
the Tirap situation, which degenerated into a Centre-State conflict over
"Operation Hurricane" against the NSCN. .....
Performing his duty as a swayamsevak
(volunteer) of the RSS, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Wednesday
participated in the annual ritual of Gurudakshina (Offering to the teacher)
at a private ceremony here, reports PTI. .....
There have been more than 700 militant
attacks in the Northeast in the past six months, Minister of State for
Home Affairs Swami Chinmayanand told Lok Sabha on Wednesday. .....
Indonesian Muslim militant Amrozi
was sentenced to death on Thursday after being found guilty of helping
plan and carry out last year’s deadly bombing attacks on the resort island
of Bali. .....
The three-month long intermittent
riding in Meerut (May-July, 1987) resulted, according to government estimates,
in the death of 17f4 persons and injuries to 171, subsequently, Rs. 1,41,24,550/-
were paid as compensation up to the time of penning this article. In fact,
the loss was for more grevious. .....
Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Sena chief
Bal Thackeray’s son and anointed successor, spoke to Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief
of The Indian Express, at the Gateway Of India in Mumbai. .....
Passengers of a mini bus on Diamond
Harbour Road were looted and the women among them allegedly molested at
Mograhat in South 24-Parganas. .....
Legal obstacles are seriously limiting
the ability of global authorities to prosecute suspected terrorists.
Data from a Dutch case this year reveals that, unless something is
done soon, the war on terrorism will run against a legal wall. .....
Not surprisingly, a Division Bench
of the Patna High Court, comprising Chief Justice Ravi S Dhawan and Justice
SK Singh, observed during the hearing of a public interest litigation last
week, that the rule of law appeared to have collapsed in Bihar. .....
It was ironical that Aparna Sen's
Mr & Mrs Iyer won three National Awards, including for 'Best Patriotic
Film', on Kargil's Martyrs' Day (July 26), the commemoration of which was
summarily called off by the Government to pander to 'friend in the making'
Pakistan. The Centre's inexcusable decision not only demoralised the army,
it was technically faulty as well. .....
The growth of Islamist terrorism
in Indonesia should lead us to ask searching questions about the country's
security. Yet these inquiries would be insufficient if they were not accompanied
by a more fundamental question: Why is Indonesia, whose dominant brand
of Islam is famously tolerant, churning out angry young men with mayhem
on their minds? .....
"We, the people of India, having
solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign socialist secular
democratic republic." .....
A US-based human rights organisation
has claimed that religious minorities, especially Hindus, still face discrimination
in Bangladesh even though the country has recently taken steps to protect
minorities. .....
A silent migration is on at Gool,
a strategic point on the route of militants heading for the neighbouring
Anantnag district of Kashmir. .....
When Canada's political leaders
decided to extend marriage rights to gays and lesbians, there was little
opposition to what was taken to be a social revolution. But a resistance
movement is stirring, led by the country's Roman Catholic bishops. .....
Though more than 80 per cent of
its population calls itself Catholic, and Catholicism permeates its history
and culture, France resists the 'majoritarian' impulse with a vigour that
has seldom wavered over the past 100 years. With the exception of the pro-Nazi
Vichy regime during World War II, successive governments have adhered to
the letter and spirit of a 1905 law which erected an impenetrable wall
between the state and the church. .....
Ali Al-Timimi was born in the United
States of Iraqi parents, attended high school in the Washington area and
holds bachelor degrees in biology and computer science. .....
President Pervez Musharraf is holding
onto the power he snatched in a 1999 coup because Pakistan is still not
ready for democracy, he said in an interview carried. .....
Ongoing investigations into documents
seized from the Lashkar-e-Taiba commander, Manzoor Zahid Chaudhuri, have
blown the lid off a massive terrorist cell with links in Gujarat, Uttar
Pradesh and Meerut. Chaudhuri, head of the Lashkar's terrorist operations
in Jammu and Kashmir, was eliminated in an encounter by the Border Security
Force on Friday. .....
A silent migration is on at Gool,
a strategic point on the route of militants heading for the neighbouring
Anantnag district of Kashmir. .....
The real hope for peace between
India and Pakistan in the present situation appears to be negligent, says
Humphrey Hawksley, BBC's foreign correspondent and also the author of The
Third World War. .....
A Pakistani militant of Lashkar-e-Toiba,
who was eliminated by a joint team of BSF and J&K Police today, has
exposed a vast network of militant conduits and operatives in the State
Police and civil administration. He also confirmed to his interrogators
that a commander of his organisation, namely Abu Ma’z, had planned and
executed the massacre of 24 Kashmiri Pandits in Nadimarg village of south
Kashmir on March 23-24 this year. .....
Mumbai police and the state government
botched up the case of the conspiracy to kill Deputy Prime Minister L K
Advani, in which seven gangsters were recently acquitted, the Intelligence
Bureau (IB) said. .....
When Pakistani president General
Pervez Musharraf stated last month that the time had come for his country
to consider establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, his comments
triggered an intense - and often angry - debate within the country. JID's
regional analyst reports on a policy which is set to have a significant
impact on the general's attempts to stabilise Pakistan, as well as his
own political future. .....
Referred to by her spy masters
only as "Mrs. Galt," she is by day an unremarkable American housewife and
mother. But after her two children go to bed, she plunges into a secret
world of Internet chat rooms and Web sites populated by some of the most
dangerous people on earth. .....
With a local court in Siwan rejecting
the anticipatory bail plea moved by RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin in connection
with a kidnapping case, the Rabri Devi government in Bihar continues to
be in a bind over how to handle the situation arising from the surprise
decision of the state police to issue arrest warrants against the controversial
MP. .....
Hardening its earlier stand and
making it compulsory for all states to implement, the Centre is ready with
a Bill prohibiting the sale of beef across the country, slapping jail terms
and fines for ‘‘cruelty’’ against cows. .....
There was a day when those words
didn't invite cynicism. Since World War II, the mutual interests
involved in America's need for Saudi oil and the Saudis' need for
American protection created a happy marriage of convenience. Recent
events on Capitol Hill, however, suggest that too many inside the
U.S. and Saudi governments have not yet grasped that this old model
was forever buried in the rubble of 9/11. .....
I got it wrong last week or, to
put a better face on my obtuseness, at least partially wrong. Or let's
say the nuances of the deal being put together between General Musharraf
and the mullahs (especially Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the kingpin of the MMA)
escaped me. .....
It seems that if the Uttar Pradesh
Government removes any story of legendary Hindi writer Munshi Premchand
from school text books, the Congress party would make an issue to grill
the BJP and its allies in NDA. But when the same happens in a Congress-ruled
state like Rajasthan, its leaders choose to remain mum. .....
But first, it's been 100 days since
the end of the combat phase of the Iraq war, and today President Bush said
they're making significant progress toward democracy in Iraq. But it's
also been a violent week for US troops and civilians. A deadly car bomb
ripped into the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad, killing 19. .....
The RSS on Thursday categorically
said Ayodhya issue would be a key issue in the Lok Sabha elections, next
year and Sangh Parivar outfits would back candidates and political parties
which support construction of the Ram Temple at the disputed site. .....
The principal of Arambagh Girls
College, suspended on charges of defalcation of funds and dereliction of
duty, has taken the fight to the district CPM, complaining that he was
being victimised for not toeing the party line and giving in to the whims
of the SFI. .....
No riot. None dead. That could
have been the headline for the day after the verdict in the trial of police
officer Jeremy Morse at the Airport courthouse in Los Angeles last week.
.....
A sleepy hamlet 60 km from Mumbai,
Mhapoli is a name that most Mumbaikars would not recognise. However,
reports in the media that Crime Branch officers have arrested a man — Rehan
Asgavkar — from the village in connection with the recent Ghatkopar blast,
has given it an uninvited notoriety. .....
Picking up the cudgels for C. Ibrahim,
India-born Pakistani passport-holder now in the custody of the Kerala police,
MPs from the State in both Houses of Parliament today sought the Centre's
intervention in his case and other such instances. .....
Tension is palpable in Khuti area
of Ranchi after a catholic-run school displayed Lord Rama in jeans and
Sita in salwar kameez while enacting a play, which has irked the rightist
groups of the state. .....
Do you know the real history of
Kashmir? There is a great deal of misconception among the people about
the State: That Kashmir did not always belong to India, or that it is a
"disputed area". This is why we recently at FACT (Forum Against Continuing
Terrorism) chose to hold an exhibition at the India Habitat Centre, which
was a great success. Here are some of the facts we highlighted through
the photographic exhibition. .....
It would seem that the CPI-M in
general and its State Secretary Anil Biswas in particular, have turned
allergic to the slightest criticism of the party, to the extent that they
wear the cap even when it is not intended for them. They have noticed that
the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Defence Minister
have visited Kolkata in quick succession and spoken at various functions.
.....
On July 31, 2003, Mr John S Pistole,
Deputy Assistant Director, Counter-terrorism Division, Federal Bureau of
Investigation, testified before the US Senate Committee on Government Affairs
on 'Terrorism Financing: Origination, Organisation and Prevention'. .....
Contemporary Bangladesh has no
dearth of communalist crooks and thugs. The most vicious of them all who
evokes instant hatred and horror at the very mention of his name is Salauddin
Qader Chaudhury. .....
Kashmiri Pundits displaced from
their homes in the Valley by militancy say both the Centre and the state
have forgotten them. .....
It was the lack of trust between
Hindus and Muslims that caused the communal clash in Kishtwar on Friday.
The atmosphere of mistrust ensures that a serious situation exists in much
of the mountainous Doda district. .....
Shortly after September 11, 2001,
I met an Indian-American friend for lunch. The topic eventually turned
to the war in Afghanistan, as it always did in those days. In the back
of my mind I wondered if he would be one of those who questioned our War
on Terror. Maybe he saw the war in terms of an imperialist America forcing
its will on a third world country and eventually coming after his native
India. .....
At the beginning of the 20th Century,
more than half the male population of this landlocked country lived as
monks in places like Ganden. .....
Outlawed jehadi outfits are back
in action despite General Pervez Musharraf’s efforts to rein them in. Jehadi
publications — Ghazwa, Majalla, Zarb-e-Taiba, Shamsheer and Zarb-e-Momin
— reveal that between January and June this year, various groups have recruited
more than 7,000 youngsters in the 18-25 age- group from across Pakistan.
.....
US Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill
spoke to Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in- chief, The Indian Express, on the security
situation in the subcontinent and the rapid advancements in the Indo-US
relations. .....
Britain's 1.8 million Muslims will
be able to enjoy a tailored stockbroking service which will be equipped
to advise on whether an investment complies with Sharia law. .....
The Centre has sanctioned Rs 2,300
crore for modernisation of the Border Security Force (BSF) and the paramilitary
taken inventory of advanced surveillance equipment that would enable monitoring
subversive activities deep inside Pakistan, BSF Director General Ajai Raj
Sharma said today. .....
A Pakistani American was on Friday
charged with conspiring to help the Al Qaeda. Uzair Paracha, who has a
green card, was charged in a criminal complaint filed by the attorney for
the southern district of New York in the Manhattan federal court. .....
The U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent and bipartisan federal agency,
is disappointed that a scheduled visit to China in early August 2003 could
not proceed as planned due to unacceptable last-minute conditions imposed
upon the Commission's visit by the Chinese government. .....
Maher Hawash, an Intel software
engineer whose detention in Oregon prompted high-profile protests about
civil rights abuse, pleaded guilty today to a federal charge of conspiring
to help the Taliban in Afghanistan. .....